Monthly Archives: May 2017

Today marked the end of 4 short days of testing. For Year 6 pupils everywhere, they’ll have spent less than 5 hours on tests – probably not for the first time this year – and later in the year we’ll find out how they did.

Now, I’m the first to complain when assessment isn’t working, and there are lots of problems with KS2 assessment. Statutory Teacher Assessment is a joke; the stakes for schools – and especially headteachers – are ridiculously high; the grammar test is unnecessary for accountability and unnecessarily prescriptive. I certainly couldn’t be seen as an apologist for the DfE. And yet…

For some reason it appears that many primary teachers (particularly in Facebook groups, it seems) are cross that some of the tests contained hard questions. I’ve genuinely seen someone complain that their low-ability children can’t reach the expected standard. Surely that’s the very reason they’re defining them as low ability?

Plenty of people seem annoyed that some of the questions on the maths test were very challenging. Except, of course, we know that some children will score 100% each year, so the level of challenge seems fair. There were also plenty of easier, more accessible questions that allowed those less confident mathematicians to show what they can do. It’s worth remembering that to reach the expected standard last year, just 55% of marks were needed.

But the thing that annoys me most is the number of people seemingly complaining that the contexts for problem-solving questions make the questions too difficult. Of course they do, that’s the point: real maths doesn’t come in lists of questions on a page that follow a straightforward pattern. What makes it all the more irritating is that many of those bemoaning the contexts of problems are exactly the same sort who moan about a tables test, complaining that knowing facts isn’t worthwhile unless you can apply them.

Well guess what: kids need both. Arithmetic knowledge and skills need to be secure to allow children to focus their energies on tackling those more complex mathematical problems. You can’t campaign against the former, and then complain about the latter.

The tests need to – as much as possible – allow children across the ability range to demonstrate their skill, while differentiating between those who are more and less confident. That’s where last year’s reading test fell down: too few accessible elements and too many which almost no children could access. This year’s tests were fair and did a broadly good job of catering for that spread. For those complaining about the level of literacy required, it’s worth remembering that questions can be read to children, and indeed many will have had a 1:1 reader throughout.

No test will be perfect, and there are plenty of reasons to be aggrieved about the chaos that is primary assessment at the moment, but blaming tests because not all children can answer all questions is a nonsense, and we’d do well to pick our battles more carefully!